In Defense of Prisons

Subjects:

• Crime & Justice » Corrections & Penology

Reviews:

• Wright presents his arguments in a logical, readalbe, straightforward manner, with much documentary support. This assessment of the value of prisons is worthwhile reading for faculty, students, policy makers, and practitioners in corrections and criminal justice.
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  Choice
• ...includes an array of research literature related to prisons and imprisonment. Wright's treatment of this literature is in-depth and detailed. He is forthright about the polemic nature of the book; as the title states, Wright defends prisons, from both real and perceived threats, on a number of fronts. This book is useful for its presentation of the research literature and because it raises important issues related to the reform of prisons. The chapters are well organized and written. The information and ideas presented in them are likely to provoke thinking and rethinking of positions and stimulate debate between and amongst students and scholars of corrections.
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  Journal of Criminal Justice
• ...very well written and achieves an exhaustive review of the extensive criminological literature on the topics of punishment, incapacitation, imprisonment, and crime deterence.
  —Criminal Justice Review

Table of Contents:

• Acknowledgments
• Confronting the Critics
• The Objectives of Punishment: Concepts and Theories
• The Failure of Prisons: Rehabilitation, Retribution, and Social Solidarity
• Positive Support for Prisons, I: Deterrence
• Positive Support for Prisons, II: Incapacitation
• Negative Support for Prisons: The Failure of Nonintervention
• Epilogue
• References
• Cases
• Index